It Is Mobility, Not Flexibility, That Should Be Your Training Goal

Let me start by saying that years of being a healthcare provider have allowed me to understand what people are asking me despite how they word their questions. Needless to say, every time someone who can lift their foot next to their ear suggests that they need to stretch more when they feel pain, a part of me cringes on the inside. It isn’t anyone’s fault in particular for thinking this way! Stretching had long been—and still is—a useful recovery and injury prevention tool. It’s just that we need to define “stretching” and the intention behind it in order to make decisions that will improve our performance.

It was long thought that being flexible is the answer to all injury woes. I admittedly copied this paragraph from an article, but this might make you think twice about that mindset: “Mobility is the ability of a joint to move freely through a full range of motion without pain or discomfort. Flexibility, on the other hand, speaks directly to the ability of a muscle lengthen fully.” To be into simpler terms, mobility is influenced by flexibility, but strictly being flexible DOES NOT imply superior muscle control. If being flexible was all we needed to stay healthy, why do “flexible” people still get injured? Aside from many contributors to injury, flexible people WITHOUT having trained at different speeds of movement for different amounts of time and under different amounts of tension may be injured when asked to move a “flexible” body part to meet one of the aforementioned conditions, but CANNOT without the tissues failing to adapt and, thus, injury.

Speaking specifically about capoeiristas, the way to develop kicks that strike high and esquivas to be low is helped in two ways: 1. practicing a specific movement, 2. performing said movements under different conditions (e.g. speed, longer duration holds, etc.). You might be thinking, “Well, it sounds like if I hold my leg on a high surface to stretch my hamstring or groin for my martelo for 30 seconds, my martelo will be better”. To your point, the flexibility can certainly improve this way. However, you will not gain any power (certainly if done before your train) and you will not reduce your chances of pulling a muscle. Your body needs to be trained to move through various ranges of movement. Just getting your leg to stretch means nothing if you can’t comfortably hold it there; let alone kick someone from there.

So I suggest the following:

1. If you are experiencing tightness, try an isometric exercise. This is one where you are activating a muscle group WITHOUT movement. For example, if my hamstring is tight, I may press my foot down onto a chair JUST BELOW where I feel like the muscle is pulling more than I can handle. Then, hold for 10 seconds. Relax and repeat.

2. If you are NOT experiencing tightness, but a movement feels weak, try holding the movement at the end range of whatever you’re trying to do and oscillate slightly. For example, if I throw a meia lua de compasso, I can go from twisting my torso and hip fully to bouncing back and forth slightly to fortify the limit of my movement.

These are just a few examples of how to approach mobility training. Otherwise, I think I would have to write a book!

https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a35901065/mobility-vs-flexibility/